In the related art, there is a technology in which heat is generated from a heating element such as a heater using electric power from an AC power supply, and processing of a component, melting of a wax, and the like are performed using the generated heat of the heating element. For example, in an image forming apparatus that performs printing in accordance with a print request, a dye material (toner) is melted so as to be fixed on a print medium by a fixing roller which is heated by a high temperature heating element. In this manner, the image forming apparatus forms an image on the print medium.
High electric power of about thousands of watts is required for heating the heating element to a high temperature to melt the toner. In addition, the heat of the heating element after the processing is ended is generally discharged into the air. A charging control device which includes a thermoelectric conversion element and a storage battery can be provided. The thermoelectric conversion element generates electric power when heated. A storage battery stores the electric power generated by the thermoelectric conversion element.
In such a charging control device, driving a DC/DC converter is required for drawing electric power from the thermoelectric conversion element. The current which can be drawn from the thermoelectric conversion element is limited depending on the characteristics and a temperature difference across the thermoelectric conversion element. Thus, a situation in which electric power to be drawn from the thermoelectric conversion element is not increased, even though a control of increasing an output of the DC/DC converter is performed, may occur. In such a case, there is a problem in that efficiency of drawing electric power from the thermoelectric conversion element is decreased.